The Road Less Traveled by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

Taking the low road

This is almost routine now. My last body was crushed under a falling load of steel for my greatest design. I am standing on a road looking at the mayhem and I am bumped by what is a constant stream of people just walking.

All have the same blank look on their faces. All just walking like a herd down the road, all in the same direction. Like an army parade, they are five columns across the road but an endless shuffling stream. I am caught up in the flow. It is either walk or get trampled. They do not stop or break formation.

It is like they are mindless, sheep following the other. I remember those videos of sheep circles. They get stuck just following the one in front of them that they become a never ending circle. That is what this reminds me of.

I start to walk in the column that abuts the side of the road. I am finding myself becoming lost in my thoughts. I am becoming a sheep.

Concentrating on myself, I must physically force myself from that line. It takes all my strength but I free myself from the line but even though I was free, the march did not stop. No one in that line even noticed, they just kept going.

Sitting down on the ground, I still feel the urge to get up and rejoin my line. “If I blend in, I won’t be noticed.” Be noticed? By who or what? Why do I need to blend in? My thoughts were interrupted by someone singing loud and proud. It did not matter to the singer that he could not carry a tune even if it were in a bucket.

I look down the side if this road and spy a lone man walking on a wooded path. The dirt path is just no more than a few feet wide. The man dwarfs the path by his large size. He has to be better than six feet tall or more. Not muscular but not fat. He is wearing a white t shirt and bib overalls. Tan scuffed work boots that show that this is a person who has known work.

I know that I need to go down there. As I think that, he stops and signals me with his hand. “Come on down, you know that you don’t belong up there. Those folks are trying to just get by.” I go down and ask him what he meant by I did not belong up there.

“You have been through a lot.” He informs me as we walk. “You have been many people and still have to be untold more until you awake. You need to walk your own path. This is my path that you have been placed on for just a short while. We will come to a fork in this path. You will know which way you need to follow. Choose wisely for the future of the universe depends on it. Let’s just walk. You can sing if you want.”

He again starts to walk and sing. I just so happen to know the lyrics and join him. He sometimes stops singing and he just reflects on something to himself but aloud. Most of which are just comments about how nice it is down here.

“When I was up there, I never noticed how beautiful this place is. Calm while up there all I thought about is blending in. I just think of what a simple but grand thing they are missing.” Then he comments to me.

“What do you think oblivion is? You do not disappear, you still are inside that body until you realize that you are an individual. You do not need to blend in. All you have to do is stand by yourself, be yourself, don’t just blend in. Stand!”

He went back to singing, still out of tune but he knew what the others on that upper road didn’t. It does not matter whether you are in perfect tune, it is the content of your heart and soul that is important.

As soon as I finished that thought, he stopped.

“Here is where we must part. You see, unlike you, I died saving someone. I will say that I know that I did what was necessary. No regrets. The path to the right is mine. If you have not noticed, both these paths are the road less traveled. The right one is the one I need to be on. I need to talk to a gate keeper. Those on the road up there just keep on going in a very long circle. Trying to blend in. Some, though, like yourself, stop and drift down here. I know that you are feeling that I am right. Which road do you take? Either one will take you to the same place but this one that I take will leave you only partially baked. You are like a cake that still has a while to cook until it is done and delicious. Which do you choose? Half baked or the long road?”

I see someone that is now wise beyond his years. He smiles at me because he knows that I go left. We shake hands and as he leaves he tells me that we will meet again but I need to learn how to sing. “You are off key all the time.” He laughs and now disappears from sight along with that path. I keep walking.

Singing, I yell out to the ones on the road. No one listened, they just keep on walking. Don’t they even see this path? I stop because I feel something. No it is someone! I yell to the people. “Please, I invite you to come on down.”

There is one person that seems like he is trying to come. He finally just tumbles down the hill and lands behind me. I pick him up and it is like he suddenly awoke. He asks “Where am I?” I find myself laughing and tell him that he is now on the right road.

“You did not need to blend in. I know that you led a good life but had deep self doubts. You were meant to be on this road. There before us was that fork. The left followed the upper road and the right went away from it. We could hear a song being sung very off key.

“You need to take the right path and catch up with that singer. He will show you the way.”

That one did just that.

I do know that this path is needed. Those are the lost ones. Could that road be actually oblivion?

I continue to walk, continue to call out and occasionally get someone to come down. I feel bad for all those that do not listen to my call. Then I hear that man’s voice telling me that I have learned what I need. “Time for you to return.”